SSD question

[irse]

Sorry for asking a question that may have been answered before but I've looked at a few pages and couldn't find an answer. If I only use a SSD for my OS and programs but use a regular HD for the data like videos and photos, will there be a tremendous increase in speed or will the HD with the data be a blottleneck? I do a lot of video editing and photoediting with CS5. Thanks

 

[f4phantom2500]

good plan my man. keep the OS and rendering programs on the SSD but use the HD as you would an external drive; store/export all your data/projects to it. basically you want all of your fast access things on the SSD and all of the other things (music, movies, etc) on the HDD.

 

[Qbah]

If you could post an update once you setup your SSD, it would be greatly appreciated I have a friend who's heavy into rendering and using Adobe products and I could really use some user experience in seeing how much things improve. Tried looking for articles on CS5 improvements when running its applications off a SSD, but my google-fu is weak recently

 

[BogdanH]

Hi,
Yes, SSD is where you should have OS and all other software intalled. Now, it's important to undestand what to expect:
1. Much faster OS startup and shutdown.
2. Overall faster OS response and much faster application startup (it "feels" like you've installed faster CPU).
3. Important for me: total silence!

However, you can't expect software will do (processing) job faster.. that is, i.e. time for encoding audio/video will not be shorter.
Worth to mention (from my experience): in real life, and as long we're talking about SATA2 drives, writting speed of large files isn't (much) faster on SSD than on fast HDD. That's why writting such files (i.e. audio/video) on HDD is recommended -to avoid "wear" of SSD. On the other hand, reading files from SSD is much faster than from HDD.

Bogdan

 

[irse]

Hi,
Yes, SSD is where you should have OS and all other software intalled. Now, it's important to undestand what to expect:
1. Much faster OS startup and shutdown.
2. Overall faster OS response and much faster application startup (it "feels" like you've installed faster CPU).
3. Important for me: total silence!

However, you can't expect software will do (processing) job faster.. that is, i.e. time for encoding audio/video will not be shorter.
Worth to mention (from my experience): in real life, and as long we're talking about SATA2 drives, writting speed of large files isn't (much) faster on SSD than on fast HDD. That's why writting such files (i.e. audio/video) on HDD is recommended -to avoid "wear" of SSD. On the other hand, reading files from SSD is much faster than from HDD.

Bogdan

Thanks, that helps. Not sure it's worth it for me to get a SSD. I rarely wait for my OS to start up. I press the power button then do stuff. Only on a reboot, I'm waiting. I'm usually multitasking on the computer so there are other things I'm doing while a program is starting up too. Hard to justify spending $250 on a SSD for what benefits I may gain.

 

[perdomot]

I have this kind of set up myself so here is my 2 cents:

Boot up - I have my PC set to wake up at 8am so this isn't a big factor for me. When I've had to reboot the PC for an update, I do appreciate the speed but its not a big deal.

Daily work - Programs & Windows responds faster and has that "snappier" feel to it. Game levels definitely load faster. I've gotten so used to it that the PCs at work feel painfully slow. Its simply something you have to experience to really appreciate it.

Cost - You don't need to spend a ton of money on a boot drive. A good 60GB is plenty for OS and Apps. I still have almost 38GB of free space on my SSD. Here is the one I'm using:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148357

 

[gorcorps]

Thanks, that helps. Not sure it's worth it for me to get a SSD. I rarely wait for my OS to start up. I press the power button then do stuff. Only on a reboot, I'm waiting. I'm usually multitasking on the computer so there are other things I'm doing while a program is starting up too. Hard to justify spending $250 on a SSD for what benefits I may gain.

I'm kind of feeling the same way. I'd like faster loads and such, but that would require a pretty high capacity SDD for all my games. A smaller one for the OS and a few productivity programs is what I'm looking at, but does it REALLY matter that Windows or FF boots a few seconds quicker? Not really. I'll be getting a fast 1TB HDD anyway for games, so why not just keep the OS on there too.

 

[RhoXS]

If I only use a SSD for my OS and programs but use a regular HD for the data like videos and photos, will there be a tremendous increase in speed or will the HD with the data be a blottleneck? Thanks

That is exactly what I do. In Nov, 2009, I installed an 80 GB G2 as my primary drive and a WD 750 GB HDD as the secondary drive. I installed W7 and all programs on the SSD. All large data bases (pictures, video, music, Paperport files, etc) all go on the 750 MB HDD.

YES! There will be a tremendous increase in APPARENT speed. It will feel like a new supercharged computer where just about everything happens instantly. From the "Starting Windows" screen to a completed desktop is 18 seconds. Applications load almost instantly. Even when it is necessary to retrieve data from the HDD, the machine just does not present any real delay.

You are still using the same processor, same memory, etc., so the increase in speed is only apparent. Processor intensive tasks like video rendering etc. will not be consequentially effected. However, in my opinion, the increase in speed is so very apparent, it is convincing. Installing the 80 GB SSD was the best upgrade with clearly the biggest bang for the buck I ever made.

That being said, I am now spoiled. In the not too distant future I intend to upgrade my 80 GB G2 with a 120 GB SSD so I can move my almost 20 GB PaperPort data base to it. I use PaperPort a lot and now want to feel the exhileration of it too responding instantly when I access a scanned file to view.

 

[BogdanH]

...YES! There will be a tremendous increase in APPARENT speed...

Agree on that! -it's a experience hard to describe.
It also depends on what you're doing on PC. What I do, requires many applications to be open at the same time and inbetween I frequently open/close additional applications. Here's where SSD shines, because response is almost instant. I can't imagine being without SSD anymore.

Of course, if PC is used mostly for internet browsing/downloading, reading mails, listening music and similar, then advantage of SSD isn't that aparent and is, considering price, hard to justify.

Bogdan

 

[irse]

Agree on that! -it's a experience hard to describe.
It also depends on what you're doing on PC. What I do, requires many applications to be open at the same time and inbetween I frequently open/close additional applications. Here's where SSD shines, because response is almost instant. I can't imagine being without SSD anymore.

Of course, if PC is used mostly for internet browsing/downloading, reading mails, listening music and similar, then advantage of SSD isn't that aparent and is, considering price, hard to justify.

Bogdan

I do a lot of multi tasking so it sounds like I would benefit.

 

[perdomot]

I do a lot of multi tasking so it sounds like I would benefit.

One of my fave SSD videos on Youtube shows multiple programs opening up after boot up and the SSDs blow away the HDDs. Imagine you set up several programs in the Start Up folder to open when the PC is turned on. All your apps will almost instantly be up an running. I do this with Chrome myself. Here is a vid example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VYEwu00j3U

 

[irse]

Is there any problems cloning the OS and programs to a regular mechanical disk?

 

[gregulator]

I am going to have to disagree with most people on this one. If you are indeed using your computer for mostly video editing and picture editing, then you really want your content to reside on the SSD, not the programs. Yes you get a faster boot time, and quicker programs loads with the OS/programs on SSD, but working in these programs will be much better if the content is on SSD.

Think about it, programs load off the drive into memory when executed. These types of programs (the programs themselves) do not hit the drive much when running (not like a game loading maps etc). What they do is load your content as you edit it. So in video editing, the program is constantly hitting the hard drive to load content into memory, and has to swap it out while playing/editing (especially the case with HD where video files are huge). You want this process to be snappy, so put the content on SSD. You will likely run out of room on the SSD, so use it on a per project basis. Load the relevant files onto the SSD, do your editing, and then move the project onto HDD for storage.

Since photos are much smaller, you may not need to use the SSD for content storage. But if you are batch processing a lot of photos, or need to load a lot of photos (collage etc) then you will find it beneficial to put them on SSD (quick to load in memory).

Obviously, if you can afford to have SSD for both, then go for it!!!

 

[irse]

I am going to have to disagree with most people on this one. If you are indeed using your computer for mostly video editing and picture editing, then you really want your content to reside on the SSD, not the programs. Yes you get a faster boot time, and quicker programs loads with the OS/programs on SSD, but working in these programs will be much better if the content is on SSD.

Think about it, programs load off the drive into memory when executed. These types of programs (the programs themselves) do not hit the drive much when running (not like a game loading maps etc). What they do is load your content as you edit it. So in video editing, the program is constantly hitting the hard drive to load content into memory, and has to swap it out while playing/editing (especially the case with HD where video files are huge). You want this process to be snappy, so put the content on SSD. You will likely run out of room on the SSD, so use it on a per project basis. Load the relevant files onto the SSD, do your editing, and then move the project onto HDD for storage.

Since photos are much smaller, you may not need to use the SSD for content storage. But if you are batch processing a lot of photos, or need to load a lot of photos (collage etc) then you will find it beneficial to put them on SSD (quick to load in memory).

Obviously, if you can afford to have SSD for both, then go for it!!!

Thats a good point. For now, I'll use it for the OS then get a smaller one for a "work" disk where I'll download the video and do any editing there before transferring it to a storage mechanical drive to watch it on the TV.

Any problems in cloning a SSD boot drive to a mechanical drive in case of a failure?